The Bridge to the Land of Effective

I was so sad this morning to lurch awake an hour and a half past when I had set my alarm and realize that while I had set it, I had forgotten to turn it on. Which means that I hurried through my quiet time with the Lord this morning, I know He understands, but it still made me sad.

But even in that, I think there's a spiritual application. Y'all, we have the tools we need for our ministries. For me, that means I've got my Bible on my coffee-table, I've got an alarm-clock that (usually) goes off in time for me to get up and spend a couple of hours in prayer before I jump into the day's craziness. I've got devotional books coming out of my ears. I've got an abundance of things to pray about.

But unless I actually walk the bridge from having tools to using tools, from being equipped for my quiet times to actually digging in and doing battle and finding refreshment in the Holy Spirit... it's all pointless. It's an empty shell.

In Acts 17, Paul told the Athenians: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands."

I am so profoundly thankful that God can't only be found in a church building, or I would be completely lost these last several months (as our church still doesn't meet in person). I've found church in other places: on Facebook Messenger groups with fellow believers, in prayer groups that I've joined online, in email threads I've shared with sisters in the Lord. I've found it sometimes in FaceTimes or Zoom calls with other people.

God has given us tools that feel a little different in our hands than our normal set of tools that we've used as we live in Him... but those different tools aren't bad: they're being effective. We can still "live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

More fully: "Got did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him (thereby showing effectiveness with those tools) and find Him (more effectiveness), though He is not far from each one of us. 'For in Him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are His offspring'" (Acts 17:27-28).

Paul knew what he was doing when he preached; he connected to the Athenian people by using things familiar to them. He based his sermon on their altar to an unknown god, and he quoted two Greek poets here, too. He was effective miles and miles and miles away from the temple in Jerusalem, which had previously been the center of faith for the Jewish people. God had equipped him, and Paul used those tools for effectiveness.

I'm glad I have my alarm; I hate that I forgot to turn it on. I don't want to make the same mistake in my ministry. Today, I'm praying for effectiveness for all of us in the ministry packages we've been given to accomplish.